Prof. Ryan D. Sochol’s Bioinspired Advanced Manufacturing (BAM) Laboratory pioneers micro/nanoscale additive manufacturing or “3D printing” strategies that advance the life sciences and biomedical applications to, ultimately, benefit human health and well-being.  These efforts rely primarily on two alternative types of 3D printing technologies: (i) “Direct Laser Writing”a two-photon/multi-photon polymerization-based 3D manufacturing technique with feature resolutions on the order of 100 nanometers; and (ii) “PolyJet 3D Printing”—a multi-material inkjet-based approach with feature resolutions on the order of 100 microns.  Learn more about BAM Lab research activities here.

BAM Lab News

Edwards, Grosvenor & Young Receive NSF Graduate Fellowships!

Sochol Receives Early Career Award from the Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering

New 3D Nanoprinted Microelectronics Paper Featured on the Inside Front Cover of Advanced Materials Technologies!

New 3D Printed Soft Robotics Paper Featured on the Front Cover of Science Advances!

Recent Videos & Presentations

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Recent Lab Photos

Meet the Team

Prof. Ryan D. Sochol

Prof. Ryan D. Sochol

Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park

Prof. Ryan D. Sochol is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering within the A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park.  He received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Northwestern University in 2006, and both his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2009 and 2011, respectively, with Doctoral Minors in Bioengineering and Public Health.  Prof. Sochol’s postdoctoral training spanned the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences & Technology, Harvard Medical School, Brigham & Women’s Hospital, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Tokyo.  Prof. Sochol holds an affiliate appointment in the Fischell Department of Bioengineering and a Fischell Institute Fellow appointment with the Robert E. Fischell Institute for Biomedical Devices, and is an Executive Committee Member of the Maryland Robotics Center.  His group received IEEE MEMS Outstanding Student Paper Awards in both 2019 and 2021, the Springer Nature Best Paper Award (Runner-Up) in 2022, and both the Microsystems & Nanoengineering/Springer Nature Outstanding Paper Award and the Micromachines – MDPI Outstanding Poster Award in 2024.   Prof. Sochol received the NSF CAREER Award in 2020 and the Early Career Award from the Institute of Physics (IOP) Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering (JMM) in 2021, was honored as a JMM Emerging Leader in 2021 and an inaugural Rising Star by the journal, Advanced Materials Technologies, in 2023, and will be honored as an ASME Rising Star at the International Mechanical Engineering Congress & Exposition (IMECE) in November 2024.

Assistant Research Professors

Molly Carton

Molly Carton

Assistant Research Professor

Dr. Molly Carton received her A.B. in Physics from Princeton University in 2014, and her M.S. in Applied Math in 2018 and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering in 2022 from University of Washington, Seattle. Her postdoctoral work was at MIT as a fellow with the MIT School of Engineering Postdoctoral Fellowship Program for Engineering Excellence.

Francis G. VanGessel

Francis G. VanGessel

Assistant Research Professor

Dr. Frank VanGessel received his B.S. in Physics from St. Mary’s College of Maryland in 2013, and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 2016 and 2018, respectively.  Prior to joining the faculty at UMD, Dr.VanGessel serves as a Government Machine Learning Engineer at the Naval Surface Warfare Center – Indian Head.

Postdoctoral Fellows

Gabriel Apaza

Gabriel Apaza

Postdoctoral Researcher

Dr. Gabe Apaza received his B.S. in Computer Science in Engineering from Michigan State University in 2019, and his Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from Texas A&M University in 2024.

Alexander Guttenplan

Alexander Guttenplan

Postdoctoral Researcher

Dr. Guttenplan received his B.A., M.Sci., and Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge in 2012, 2012, and 2017, respectively.  His postdoctoral training includes and the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Michela Sanguedolce

Michela Sanguedolce

Postdoctoral Fellow

Dr. Sanguedolce will be joining BAM Lab in January 2025 as a Fischell Institute Young Investigator!

Ph.D. Students

A. Muhaymin Chowdhury

A. Muhaymin Chowdhury

Ph.D. Student

A. Muhaymin Chowdhury received his B.S. from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 2023 and joined the BAM Lab in Spring 2024.

Adira Colton

Adira Colton

Ph.D. Student | *NSF GRFP Recipient*

Adira Colton received her B.S. from Cornell University in 2021 and joined the BAM Lab in Fall 2021.  Adira received a Clark Doctoral Fellowship in 2021, a 2022-2023 Microsoft Diversity in Robotics and Autonomy Ph.D. Fellowship in 2022, and the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship in 2023.

Elizabeth Dolan

Elizabeth Dolan

Incoming Ph.D. Student

Elizabeth Dolan received her B.S. from Johns Hopkins University in 2024 and joined the BAM Lab in Fall 2024!

Bailey Felix

Bailey Felix

Ph.D. Student | *NSF GRFP Recipient*

Bailey Felix received her B.S. from Syracuse University in 2021 and joined the BAM Lab in Fall 2023.  Bailey received a Clark Doctoral Fellowship in 2021 and the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship in 2023.

Chenchen Handler

Chenchen Handler

Ph.D. Student

Chenchen Handler received her B.S. and M.S. from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 2021 and 2022, respectively, and joined the BAM Lab in Fall 2022.

M. Rho Ma

M. Rho Ma

Ph.D. Student | *NSF GRFP Recipient*

Rho received their B.S. from the University of California, Davis, in 2021 and joined the BAM Lab in Fall 2024. Rho received the NSF Research Experience for Post-Baccalaureate Students in 2021, the CMNS Dean’s Fellowship in 2022, the Arthur B. Gahan Fellowship in 2022 and 2023, and the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship in 2024.

Michael Restaino

Michael Restaino

Ph.D. Candidate

Michael Restaino received his B.S. from Virginia Tech in 2016 and joined the BAM Lab in Spring 2017.

Xin (Pannie) Xu

Xin (Pannie) Xu

Ph.D. Student

Pannie Xu received her B.S. from George Washington University in 2018, her M.S. from Johns Hopkins University in 2020, and joined the BAM Lab in Fall 2020.

Olivia Young

Olivia Young

Ph.D. Student | *NSF GRFP Recipient*

Olivia received her B.S. from Dickinson College in 2020 and joined the BAM Lab in Fall 2020. Olivia received a UMD Flagship Fellowship and a Clark Doctoral Fellowship in 2021, and an MRC Graduate Research Fellowship and the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship in 2022.

Master’s Student Researchers

Zachary Ferraro

Zachary Ferraro

Zachary Ferraro received his B.S. from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 2019, and joined the BAM Lab in Fall 2020.

Ryan Halli

Ryan Halli

Ryan Halli is a B.S./M.S. student at the University of Maryland, College Park, and joined the BAM Lab in Summer 2022.

Nathan Hill

Nathan Hill

Nathan Hill is a B.S./M.S. student at the University of Maryland, College Park, and joined the BAM Lab in Summer 2023.

Janine van Niekerk

Janine van Niekerk

Janine van Niekerk received her B.S. from New York University in 2016 and joined the BAM Lab in Fall 2019.

Mark Rosser

Mark Rosser

Mark Rosser is a B.S./M.S. student at the University of Maryland, College Park, and joined the BAM Lab in Fall 2023.

Contact Us

Ryan D. Sochol, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Affiliate Faculty, Fischell Department of Bioengineering
Fischell Institute Fellow, REF Institute for Biomedical Devices
Executive Committee Member, Maryland Robotics Center
A. James Clark School of Engineering
University of Maryland, College Park

Email: rsochol@umd.edu
Tel: (301) 405-6928

(Office) Room 2147 | (Lab) Room 2152
Glenn L. Martin Hall, Building 088
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742